Classical homeschooling in Southern California

Thank you Google, for helping me be a better Mom.

Sometimes I can’t imagine how parents before us managed without the internet that we have today. There are so many times I have no idea how to handle a situation and just turn to Google for the answers. And I’m not talking about homeschooling resources, learning styles, meet up groups, or just videos to watch. I mean basic parenting situations that arise when you have very small children in the house.

I’ve researched everything from how to get sharpee out of a leather couch (Yup, that happened), to how to remove a splinter when your child screams bloody murder whenever you get close to him with tweezers, a needle, or anything else I can think of to remove said splinter.

Today’s google lesson. How to remove Silly Putty from clothes. Seriously. I think if it wasn’t for the internet, I would have just ended up throwing the clothes away. I spent an hour, an entire hour, trying to get that gunk out of a pair of jeans yesterday. I was about to give up and toss it when Green Bubbles got it all over a second pair of pants, a jacket, and his sisters leggings! I wasn’t about to throw that many clothes away, although the Silly Putty did manage to find it’s way into the trash today.

We were watching a documentary on netflix about Mammals and he suddenly jumps up and runs over to me screaming, “It’s on my clothes!” I didn’t even realize he had it. Mommy fail. That’s when I noticed it was also all over his jacket. When he shifted to let me look, it was on the back of his pants too. “Did you sit in it? Is it on the leather chair?”

I may have let my anger get the better of me. Thankfully, it came off the chair easily. The clothes were not so lucky. And since his sister, who was completely innocent in the whole affair was sitting next to him on said chair.. Yeah, it ended up on the back of the leggings she was wearing too.

That’s when Dr. Google comes into play for me. With a little WD-40, who thinks to try things like that, the Silly Putty came off easily. I was so grateful we had some on hand because that is not something we use very often around here. Honestly, I’m not even sure why we DO have it. I took the clothes, including the jeans from yesterday, outside where the fumes wouldn’t be as vicious. I attacked it with a dull knife, scraping up clumps of Silly Putty inbetween spraying it with the WD-40, the fumes wafting through the air.

There’s only a tiny hint of a red stain left behind and google informs me that a little rubbing alcohol will get it out easily. I’d tell you for sure but we happen to be all out of rubbing alcohol at the moment so step two will have to wait a bit.

Thank you internet, and google, for making my life as a Mom so much easier then my own parents.